The Real Billy the Kid: Was it Brushy Bill Roberts?

For lovers of the Old West the story of Billy the Kid's death is well known. On the night of July 14th, 1881, the Kid was shot by Sheriff Pat Garrett in the darkened room of Pedro Maxwell in Fort Sumner, New Mexico. It was a violent end for the Kid, who had only a few months earlier escaped hanging under Garrett's custody. Garrett became the famous lawman who had ended Billy the Kid's career, and even wrote the book on Billy the Kid's life: The Authentic Life of Billy the Kid.

But did Pat Garrett really kill Billy the Kid? Many have questioned the claim over the years, and a number of people have claimed that they were in fact Billy the Kid, alive and well. Perhaps none of these claimants is so well known as an old man from Hico, Texas, by the name of Brushy Bill Roberts.

Brushy Bill Roberts Seeks his Pardon

In 1950, a man by the name of Oliver L. Roberts, better known as Brushy Bill, requested a meeting with the governor of New Mexico, Thomas Mabry. He claimed that he was Billy the Kid, who had not been killed by Pat Garrett and was requesting that the governor grant him a pardon. He realized that he was nearing the end of his life and wanted to die a free man.

Roberts made the request with the aid of William V. Morrison, a lawyer from St. Louis, Missouri. While working on a case in Florida, Morrison had learned that the man he was working for, Joe Hines, was in fact Jessie Evans of the Jesse Evans Gang who had fought against Billy the Kid and the Regulators in the Lincoln County War. Hines revealed to Morrison that Billy the Kid was in fact still alive and living in Texas under the name of Brushy Bill Roberts.

Morrison contacted Brushy Bill at his home in Hico, Texas in 1949. After many conversations with him he decided that he was, in fact, Billy the Kid. He wanted Brushy Bill to come forward publicly with his claim, but Brushy was reluctant. He finally agreed to make his claim public if Morrison would agree to act as his lawyer in receiving his pardon from Governor Mabry.

Mabry agreed to meet with Brushy, and on November 29th, 1950 the meeting took place in Mabry's mansion. Also there were Oscar and Jarvis Garrett, sons of Pat Garrett, Cliff McKinney the son of Kip McKinney, one of the deputies who had been with Garrett when the Kid was killed, and Arcadio Brady, grandson of Sheriff William Brady killed by the Kid and the Regulators. The historians were in attendance as well: William Keleher, E.B. Mann and Will Robinson.

Roberts gave his testimony and was cross-examined by the gathered men, during which time Roberts made a number of errors and forgot a number of basic items about Billy the Kid's life, unable at one point to even remember Pat Garrett's name. After the meeting the Governor declared that Brushy Bill would not be granted a pardon as Mabry did not believe that he was Billy the Kid. Unfortunately for Brushy Bill he would die just a few months later of a heart attack in his hometown of Hico, Texas.

The Evidence for Brushy Bill

Despite the denial of his pardon by the governor of New Mexico, many continue to believe that Brushy Bill was in fact Billy the Kid, and much evidence has been gathered to show that he was. Morrison took numerous notes and tapes of his many meetings with Roberts. There are also a number of photos that have been taken of Brushy Bill.

In 1990, a team at the University of Texas at Austin, using the most advanced of photomatching techniques examined a photo Brushy Bill taken near the end of his life with the only known authentic photograph of Billy the Kid. The photographs proved to show a 93% match with each other, and is the most convincing evidence that Brushy Bill might in fact have been Billy the Kid.

In Morrison's notes, Brushy also reveals an astonishing amount of information about Billy the Kid's life and the Lincoln County War, much of it true but things that were not known to the general public at the time. According to Morrison Roberts could also make his hands smaller than his wrists, a trick that the Kid was famous for.

Atop of all of this there is testimony from a number of people that knew Billy the Kid, including Joe Hines/Jesse Evans, who claim that Brushy Bill was none other than the Kid himself. Several of these even signed affidavits to that effect before Roberts went to Mabry for his pardon.

Problems with Brushy's Story

With all of this evidence, and there is even more, it would seem to many that Brushy Bill was in fact Billy the Kid. Why, then, was he not granted a pardon by Governor Mabry, and why do the vast majority of historians continue to reject that he was who he said he was?

A major part of the problem is proving that Billy the Kid did not actually die on July 14th, 1881. While there is a large amount of contradictory evidence about that event itself (including contradictions between Garrett and his deputies who were there that night), there is also quite a bit of evidence to support that Billy the Kid did die that night, including the coroner jury's report signed by a number of witnesses who testified that it was Billy the Kid.

In 1937 a reporter went back to Fort Sumner, New Mexico, and talked with Deluvina Maxwell, a good friend of Billy the Kid's, as well as Jesus Silva, another man who had known the Kid and was one of the men who wrote the coroner jury's report. Both of these people again corroborated the original story that Billy was in fact dead. If Billy the Kid was in fact killed on the 14th of July, 1881, there is no way that he could be Brushy Bill.

During his testimony both to Morrison and to Mabry, Brushy Bill made a number of basic errors, although he also did get several things right. On top of this his explanation of where he was at different periods in his life do not match with where Billy the Kid is supposed to have been, including large amounts of time in Texas and travelling across the southwest as a bronco rider when Billy the Kid was supposed to be in New Mexico or Arizona.

The man Roberts claims was killed by Garrett, Billy Barlowe, is not known to exist either before or after the event. There is no historical trace of him whatsoever, which casts doubt on Brushy Bill's story.

When Morrison found him, Brushy Bill was going by the name Oliver Roberts. Looking at census records it is shown that Oliver Roberts is far too young to be Billy the Kid, and his niece claims that he was born in 1879, only 2 years before the Kid's death. Brushy Bill claimed that Oliver Roberts was his cousin, he was actually born William Henry Roberts and took over Oliver's name after Oliver died in 1939. His original tombstone read Oliver L. Roberts, however, and gave his birth year as 1868, not that given by his niece but still too young to be Billy the Kid.

Brushy Bill's reputation has also been damaged by his affiliation with J. Frank Dalton, a known fraud who spent years trying to convince America that he was the real Jesse James, who was killed by Bob Ford in 1882. Brushy claimed that Dalton was the real Jesse James and that he had ridden with the James Gang while he was still Billy the Kid, although there is absolutely no other evidence to support that the Kid ever rode with Jesse James.

The Debate Continues

Today the debate continues to go on. The vast majority of historians see Brushy Bill Roberts as a fraud, a pretender to the name of Billy the Kid. The many contradictions of his story and the great amount of evidence to support that Billy the Kid really was killed casts Brushy Bill's claim into the same pan as all the other fake claimants who have come forward over the years.

If you travel to Hico, Texas, the hometown of Brushy Bill, you will find a very different story. The town prides itself on its relationship to Brushy Bill, and has even created the Billy the Kid Museum, which is based on the idea that Brushy was the Kid. The tombstone on Brushy Bill's grave has even been changed to read William Henry Roberts, AKA Billy the Kid.

A project was announced by the state of New Mexico in 2003 to put the matter to rest once and for all. The plan is to dig up the grave of Billy the Kid's mother and test it with DNA of Brushy Bill. They will also look for the body of Billy the Kid in the Fort Sumner Cemetary where is said to have been buried although in an unmarked grave. They hope to find the real body of Billy the Kid, and to prove once and for all that Brushy Bill is not Billy the Kid.

Many oppose this plan, and as of yet no moves have been made to exhume the body of Billy the Kid or his mother to test against Brushy Bill. Fans of the Kid and the Old West say that the claims that he was not really killed are so far-fetched that they should simply be thrown out, and there is no reason to disturb his body or the body of his mother. Right now these people are winning, but the law enforcement community of New Mexico continues to fight for more proof. Only time will tell what happens, and even if these tests do go forth we will most likely never know for absolutely sure that Brushy Bill Roberts is or is not Billy the Kid.